Jeremiah Richards

I was reading this morning and read through one of Seth Godin’s recent posts and it challenged the heck out of me. Read it below and I will make a few comments to contextualize the ideas at the end.

“Is everything okay?

Unless you work in a nuclear power plant, the answer is certainly no (and if you work there, I hope the answer is yes.)

No, everything is not okay. Not in a growing organization. Not if your company is making change happen, or dealing with customers. How could it be?

And yet, that’s what so many managers focus on. How to make everything okay.

We spend so much time smoothing things out, we lose the opportunity for change, or for texture or creativity.

Instead of working so hard to make everything okay, perhaps it is more helpful to work hard at living with a world that rarely is.”

That should push every student, housewife, engineer, leader, pastor, and everyone else! In church world this is so easy to fall prey to. Having to produce over and over again each week, it is easy to set the standard at “okay” and not push to change the world. There is enormous pressure in leadership to sell vision to the popular majority and never see the awesome world changing consequences of following Jesus completely.

I am printing this statement out and plastering it on my office wall, while I have an office wall, and on a notebook. “We spend so much time smoothing things out, we lose the opportunity for change, or for texture or creativity.”

I will lead a church that brings change, texture and creativity to Columbia, SC. This will happen not because I am any more skilled than anyone else, or because we have more resources, but because when it comes to reaching the unchurched in Columbia we can not be okay with “okay”. Jesus didn’t come just for church people. He came for everybody!

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Guess how many times have I heard this, “We can not be creative. We just don’t have the budget.”? Maybe 738, give or take a dozen. Seriously, I have heard that excuse so many times and I have even used it myself.

The truth is creativity is free. It is a talent developed just like any other talent. It takes practice. The people who talk about not having enough money are for the most part being lazy. It is always easier to spend money than it is to creatively think about and create something impacting and memorable.

This is just one example of what that looked like for the children’s ministry of Dutch Fork Christian Church. I am pretty sure the use the 252 Basics and Firstlook curriculums from the Rethink Group. My son Cade brought this home 2 weeks ago and I was really blown away by the creative and cheap way they made an old story like Moses and the Red Sea stick with young children.

To communicate the parting of the Red Sea the class took 2 pieces of paper and glued them togather at the ends and cut the top page. The top was simply painted blue. When it dried every child had a visual they took home. My 4 year old came home and told me the whole story. It was awesome, creative, and cheap.

I reemeber years ago before I every had any money to spend on lighting using rope lighting and coffee cans painted black with a 100 watt light bulb in the bottom to light a stage for our student minsitry worship band. There are tons of things you can do to improve your environment in really cheap ways. If you have been a creatively cheap share your ideas in a response here.

So….

Today I recieved my newly repaired MacBook Pro. A little over a week ago the hard drive in my precious baby overheated and died. I returned from lunch to find the computer making a high pitched noise and every few seconds it would make a metal on metal knocking noise. Not good at all!

So today it returned and all I had to do was plug in the TimeMachine backup disk, boot from my Leopard CD and hit restore and magically the whole system was back exactly where it was before it crashed. I love TimeMachine!

I have to give credit to Ray for the genesis of this post. Ray is an Elder at Dutch Fork Christian Church and friend.

We were mountain biking with a group of guys from church on Sunday afternoon. When we were at a point where we stop to relax and let the guys regroup Ray made this observation.

“I watch you and I ride down a hill and gain substantial speed and momentum and as we approach the next large hill or obstacle we carry that momentum half way up that next hill. That momentum is used to push us further faster before we have to really work hard to climb the next hill. Andrew and several other guys hold the breaks on the downhill. They are trying to make decisions about every little small root and rock they approach. Should I go around it or over it. They have to decide about every detail instead of allowing the bike to absorb the impact and simply do what it was made to do.”

That truth about mountain biking is so true in the leadership of any organization including the church. It is easy to compare 2 churches one growing and one not, and most of the time this truth will be alive and well. Many churches lack momentum because they unknowingly are hitting the breaks. In most churches for any kind of decision to be made, the board has to meet and spend 2 months deliberating every possible option and then make a decision. By this time the opportunity is passed and any decision is now the wrong one because the right one had to happen 2 months ago.

Jim Collins, in Good To Great, talks about momentum in this same way. Companies that are guided by what he calls the “hedge hog” concept don’t have to apply the breaks for every decision. The hedge hog concept is the one thing your company does that is best in its industry. Great companies are able to easily and quickly make decisions based on the one thing their company does well. Their vision is everything and drives every decision. They quickly evaluate decisions and speed past them gaining more and more momentum. If there is a bump or hill to climb, their momentum helps them overcome without a huge drain on resources. They have to work harder and make some fast adjustments, but over all they fly past the obstacle and the others bogged down with the details of every decision.

Churches should take a clue from Jim and allow the leaders in place to lead and make those decisions that will gain and build momentum. Let the leaders in place do their job like the experienced rider with his bike, making the best decisions based on the vision and allowing the momentum to build.

Momentum is a resource given by God for our management like any other. Let us use it wisely!

I I was reading some worship blogs and came across this worship leader from Life Church.tv who in this pic looks a lot like another notable worship leader I know of. The first pic is of the worship from LifeChurch.tv who’s name I don’t know, if you do please let me know. The other pic’s are Carlos Whittaker from Buckhead Church and North Point Community Church.

What other look a likes are in the church world?

What's my name? I am from LifeChurch.tv

As I read in Acts and Mark yesterday I was struck by a reality that many church leaders find themselves living out. It is easy to preach about, program environments that promote, and lead small groups on faith, and still not live faith.

Mark ch. 5  show us that Jesus was traveling and doing miracles and ministering to people and than ch. 6 happens and Jesus is limited by his own family and friends lack of faith. Mark 6:5-6 is alive and kicking in the lives of many churches and their leaders.

I read about the great things the Holy Spirit did in the lives of the early church and I ask, why do we not see these great things happening today? Why don’t we see the church of Jesus Christ aggressively pushing the ball down the field? Why are so many churches content to celebrate the 3-5 decisions a year and pat ourselves on the back for a few hundred dollars raised for the homeless, don’t get me wrong I celebrate every life changed for Jesus, but could there be more than what most churches experience.

As I look around the country it is happening in different places. Places like Elevation Church, LifeChurch.tv, North Point Community Church, and New Spring Church have all had to step out in faith to see God move. It is easy to point at a large church and credit their success on a great leader, good marketing, and slick environments, but they have all had major faith struggles where the only way they were going to succeeded was for God to move.

The reason most churches don’t see God move is that the leaders are not living on the edge where God has to move. Maybe as church leaders if we start living faith instead of just doing a great job talking about it, presenting it, and programming it, we will see God move amongst our churches.

Maybe our lack of faith is just as limiting as those in Mark 6:5-6.

Wow,

Have you ever been presented with something that may be a God thing, but you are unsure so you test it over and over again? I feel like God is throwing ever one of my excuses and doubts out the window. Maybe now the only thing left to do is MOVE?

Where is God calling you to move? What has he called you to that you have not acted on? What has God called you away from that you have not stepped away from?